


Fire in the Soul

by Hooded_Dreamer



Series: Tick, tick, Boom [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Axel is a stalker and proud of it, F/M, High School AU, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Smut, Soulmates AU, TiMER AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2019-10-25 12:45:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17725457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hooded_Dreamer/pseuds/Hooded_Dreamer
Summary: There's a device that just came out that counts down the time until you met your soulmate, and then identifies them upon first met after activation, but Roxas isn't interested in getting one. It destroyed his parents' marriage, had his Dad moving halfway across the world with Roxas's twin brother, and does nothing but cause drama. And Roxas hates drama. So when he hits the age now considered 'the right of passage' to just about everyone in the world, Roxas refuses to get the watch. When spring break rolls around and he goes to spend it getting reacquainted with his twin brother, he ends up with one on his wrist....and now he can't seem to shake the redhead his stupid watch has linked him to.





	1. Goodbye Twilight Town

Ansem was the devil, Roxas decided. He and his team were filled with brilliant individuals who were capable of just about anything that the mind could fathom - but what does this group of amazing intellectuals do with themselves? The engineered a fucking romance meter, the TiMER.

A person goes to a lab, they give some blood, and shortly after they get a nifty little watch that counts down the seconds until that person is supposed to meet their soulmate. When they lock eyes with their soulmate for the first time after the device is put on, the device, as well as the device on the other person, will ring loudly. If your soulmate didn't have one yet, than yours was blank. When your soulmate got one, your countdown would begin. After that, it would synce and you would be able to find them no matter where they were as long as they kept it one. Once the watch was taken off, it was dead, coming back to life as soon as it was put back on.

While the groups were incredibly secretive about how it worked, what magic was used to conjure such results, they said it relied on multiple factors that ultimately pointed out who the one person was that you would be happiest with. The idea was laughable, but the results were something most people couldn't argue with.

Overnight, there had been a monumental shift in the dynamics of pretty much every relationship everywhere in the world. For some, it was a reaffirmed things, for others, it planted seeds of doubt. For Roxas, it had ruined his entire world. Honestly, he didn’t know what the fuck they had been thinking. His parents had been married for nearly ten years when it came out, so why they felt the need to buy the evil little things, he hadn’t the slightest clue. But they did. And they didn’t match. His Dad’s timer read what was roughly the count down until the time he would clock into work the next day. His mother’s had roughly forty years worth of countdown on it.

Now, in the fourteen years since the devices came out, certain things became predictable. One of them was that there were generally two responses to a romantic pair not matching after they get their watches.

The first response was for the already established relationship to implode, which is exactly what happened to his parents. His Dad had figured out that his Mom’s soulmate would have probably swooped in after his Father had died. His Mom figured out that his Father’s soulmate was someone he worked with...which she decided equated that he was cheating on her. The day after they got their watches, his Dad moved out.

His parents stopped talking shortly after that, and a divorce followed.

His Dad got full custody of his twin brother, Sora, and the pair moved to where his Dad's family was from and where he had always fantasized about retiring to - a little island in the middle of nowhere. Their main export was a star shaped fruit. And tiny little shells. He stayed with his mother, who got full custody, and the pair moved back to the city she had grown up and where his parents had met - Twilight Town.

The other response to a romantic pair on matching?

“I threw it out.” Hayner said in a way of greeting when Roxas opened his front door.

Roxas blinked at him, took a step back, and then waited there while Hayner stomped in. Roxas stood there for a beat longer before he closed the door and turned to follow Hayner toward where his bedroom was, following the sound of his friend's heavy footsteps.

While Hayner went straight for Roxas’ bed, flopping down to lay face first in a pile of clothes there, Roxas slowly went over to return to what he had been doing when Hayner came knocking - packing. He wouldn't be gone long, only a week, but that still warranted a full bag. They were quiet for a long minute before Roxas sat down on the bed next to Hayner’s head. He pulled out his cell phone to check the time. It was just after one in the afternoon. He had another four hours before he had to get to the train station for his departure.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Roxas drawled then, checking his email.

Hayner shook his head, burying it deeper in the pile of unfolded clothes there. “I wish I never got it.” He said, his voice muffled.

Roxas wasn’t the type of friend to say ‘I told you so’, so he just nodded and leaned back to spread out on the bed, setting his phone aside to stare up at the faded poster tacked to the ceiling.

When his parents had begun the divorce proceedings, his Dad had promised to bring Roxas to visit him and Sora on the island and had sent him posters and other things from their new home. Roxas had expected to spend summer there, playing on the white sands of the beachs from the photos with the friends Sora wrote about. As the divorce grew more acrimonious and his parents grew more bitter, his Dad promised less and less until, eventually, he didn’t promise anything.

The letters became less personal until communication was saved just for updates written on holiday cards, and then those became just things with his Dad’s signature on them, as well as the signature of his Dad's soulmate.

Roxas was not proud of how he handled the whole thing, especially when it came to his brother. Sora made an attempt - he always wrote long-winded letters - each usually five pages or more - detailing the shenanigans he got into with his two best friends, the adventures they had on their little island. Roxas got one every Friday. They were packed with pictures.

Roxas didn’t often respond. He could use the excuse that he was angry and bitter about his Father withdrawing emotionally from him. He could say his mother encouraged that he moved on with his life, as she had with hers. He could even say he was jealous that his twin seemed to live in a nice house in paradise while Roxas was stuck in a dreary city in less ideal living standards.

But Roxas was old enough to know that there just wasn’t any excuse for it. So last month he finally responded with more than his usual brisk update. He gave his brother his email. They video chatted until his brother lost his voice.

They both cried.

And now Roxas was going there for a week to spend spring vacation with him.

Their mother hadn’t been happy, but Roxas had reminded her that he would be graduating from high school in a few short months. She could forbid him from visiting his brother for a week and he could instead spend the entire summer there, or he could stay the course she had set out for him.

To say he wasn’t excited to be interning at his Mom’s company was an understatement, but he had yet to come up with a better plan for his future outside of spending afternoons with his friends. He liked Struggle, but unless you were one of the select few at the very top, you didn't make a living off of it. Hayner might have it in him, but after a bad hit to his knee a couple years back, Roxas decided that he didn't want to put his body through it. So he let his Mom sign him up to shadow some of the men at her work. They might do mind-numbingly boring work in a soulless job, but they made a good living and, frankly, Roxas was tired of being so damn poor all the time.

Hayner rolled onto his back then and joined Roxas in staring up at the ceiling. “Long story short - we didn’t match. She had a short countdown, so we're pretty sure she already knows whoever it is - but neither of us can figure out who they are. Mine...was blank.” Roxas looked down to see his friends face scrunching up. That was a bad place to be in, Roxas heard. If you got the device, you obviously wanted to know your countdown, so being given the uncertainty of a blank screen was the worst case scenario that everyone dreaded, even more she than the ones like his mother, who had years and years on theirs. “We’re perfect for each other. That’s all that matters.” Hayner added quickly, looking to Roxas as if he needed him to confirm this. Roxas gave a slow, short nod. Hayner sniffed and looked back to the poster. “So we both threw them out - well-” Hayber screwed his eyes shut. “I threw mine out. She said her Mom would kill her if she threw out hers, so she just...took it off.” He opened his eyes and looked to Roxas then with an unreadable expression. “I don’t....I don't want to be with anyone other than her.”

“Then don’t.” Roxas said simply. “The whole thing is bullshit anyway.”

Hayner’s expression softened before they exchanged smiles, then looking back to the ceiling. They laid in comfortable silence then for a few minutes before Roxas went off to take a shower. When he came out, dressed for the long trip, Hayner was setting up a counsel game for them to pass the time until Olette came over.

She entered the house in a flutter of nervous energy, going down a long list with Roxas to make sure he had everything he needed for both his long trip and his stay on the island. Just as they always had, Roxas and Hayner did whatever she said and together they quickly finished not only packing, but getting Roxas' room in order. There was tension there between her and Hayner, Olette giving him worried glances while Hayner walked around with a forced smile, and it broke Roxas' heart. He couldn't imagine the pair not being together - they bickered and could get into some serious fights, but there was so much love between them....he would have never thought they would ever be with anyone else.

That fucking device was evil. it put doubt into the hearts of people when there needn't be. 

As Olette was checking for the fifth time that Roxas had his tickets in the front pocket of his bag, there was pounding on the front door and Roxas leaped to his feet, hurrying downstairs to open the door. The final member of their quartet was there, still dressed in his work uniform and gasping like he had run the entire way here. Any annoyance fled Roxas as concern took over and he asked the other young man what was wrong.

It took Pence a full minute of gasping before he could speak - "My watch lit up!" Roxas stiffened, his eyes widening. Pence continued, looking as panicked as Roxas felt. "But then it went blank again!"

Roxas shifted uneasily. "They probably just took it off..." He said as Hayner came down the stairs in a hurry, Olette behind him. 

Pence explained that his watch had lit up while he was at work a few hours ago, counting down until he got off of work, but then died shortly before he got off.

"Ah, that just means they took it off!" Hayner said with a wave of his hand. He reached back to pull Olette over, telling her to take out her watch to show that the screen was dead. "Once it goes back on, it'll light up. Don't sweat it." He gave Olette an expectant look, clearing wanting her to put it on to demonstrate that the watch will wake right back up.

Olette held the limp watch between her fingers, staring down at it with a worried look. Roxas watched as she slowly looked back to Pence and his pleading expression with a glassy-eyed look. She looked to Hayner and then quickly back to Pence before her eyes watered. "I-" She shook her head and shoved it back into her pocket, swallowing thickly before she gave Pence a supportive smile. "Don't worry - I'm sure it'll count down again soon."

Roxas stared at the blank screen of Pence's watch, the item an obsession of his friend since the other young man had gotten it the month before on his eighteenth birthday. In private, Pence had confessed to Roxas that while he was happy with his friends, he longed for a relationship like the one Hayner had with Olette, wishing he had a partner who was as devoted to him as they were to each other.

Roxas slowly looked to Olette and met her worried gaze. His face hardened before he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said in a determined voice that they all needed to share one box of sea salt ice creams before he left. Pence complained that he couldn't think about treats when something like this was happening, but Hayner was able to distract him. Pence didn't ask how it went at the lab with Hayner and Olette - Pence was the sort of guy that only thought of the best. The idea that his two best friends might not be each other's soulmates probably never crossed Pence's mind, and Roxas really loved that about him. 

The four of them gathered in the small, cramped kitchen and enjoyed one last round of sea salt ice creams before they walked Roxas to the station.

It was only a week, but they were the type of friends that didn't like to be apart for longer than a day.

All four were from lower class families in a city full of people with obscene wealth, so it had been very easy for them to fall together and stay together as they grew up. They were vastly different, but for just over ten years, they had spent almost all day, every day, with each other. They supported each other in the way a family did, filling in whatever void was left by their own families. And for the four of them, there were some considerable voids.

When Roxas confessed he wanted to see his brother, his friends had rallied together and worked to save up to buy him the expensive tickets to Destiny Island, just as Roxas had worked to save up and chip in for the pricey TiMER packages for his friends even though he didn't agree with them. And while he had been a little bummed at not being here for when his friends to watch Hayner at the Struggle competition, that was mostly covered by his excitement at seeing his brother.

But now he was relieved that he wouldn't be here. The last thing he wanted to do was be here for the fallout of what was sure to happen between his friends, and he didn't think he could stomach being around for it.

As he found his seat on the train, he forced himself to push his friend's situation to the back of his mind. He was good at and ignoring things when he wanted to, something he supposed he got from his father. Something he was completely prepared to confront his father about.

So he waved goodbye to his friends from the window by his seat, ignoring the glance Olette sent Pence and instead focusing on Hayner's big smile.

He wasn't sure it would be there when he returned.

 


	2. The Island Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd, but you probably guessed that, lol!

Truth be told, Roxas wasn't the restless sort. He found his place, he burrowed in, and he would have absolutely no desire to leave it unless something big happened that made that place unfavorable. When he was a child and the line of communication with his father and brother was still wide open, he had built up Destiny Island to be this wondrous place that he was going to get to live. His father had painted a beautiful picture with his words - he had wrote that the sand there were never too hot to burn your feet and the ocean was always the perfect temperature to float in for hours. But best of all, the flowery, heavy fragrance from the paopu trees clung to everything and everyone. People were always smiling here, life was simple, easy, fun. There was always something to do but no rush to do it.

He had prepared himself for it - he made plans, he had expectations.

But he was never sent for, so instead Roxas got a musty smelling apartment in a sleepy city, where time dragged on and there never seemed to be anything interesting to do. They had only two seasons - bitter cold winter, or sweltering hot summer. In between those two was maybe a week - usually shorter - of windy, dry days where the air was almost to dusty to breathe, but you got to wear normal clothing for once instead of heavy coats or thin, flimsy shirts, so there was that.

It was not ideal, but he made it his home. He had no other choice. He made friends, and the four of them found all the hidden, wonderful gems that their city had to offer. They got into sports or clubs. They made due.

It also helped that Roxas purposefully decided to hate Destiny Island. He took those lovely images his father painted for him and instead pictured a different image, focusing on any possible negative. Islands had hurricanes. And huge, nasty bugs - like sand mites! It started out small like that, and then progressively became a place that he resented for the sole purpose that it wasn't as wonderous as his father seemed to think.

And just his luck, his father was right.

Which really pissed him off. 

Stepping off the boat, he was immediately enveloped in a sweet, flowery smell that he knew had to be the fruit his father's island was known for. It was everywhere he looked- sold in quaint little stalls on the boardwalk, filled the colorful bowls on the tables of the seaside restaurants. There were trees everywhere and they were all loaded down with the fucking fruit. He glared at it, and if sensing his hatred of it, one fell out of the tree above him and narrowly missed his head. He kicked it with all of his might, sending the fruit flying out into the ocean.

He ignored the strange looks he got and went to collect his bag, carrying it over to a nearby bench to wait there for his brother.

Though he had protested, Sora had been adamant about meeting him at the dock, and so Roxas waited anxiously. He tried not to imagine how their big reunion would be. If he set his expectation too high - like he always did - he'd just be let down and his mood would continue on the downward spiral it tended to go whenever he didn't get what he had wanted. It was easier to just not want things, that way on the rare occasion when something actually worked in his favor, he could be pleasantly surprised by it.

He tried not to think too much about what he was going to say to his father, but that was exactly where his mind kept going. He had twelve years' worth of anger and resentment built up, and if he wasn't careful, he knew he was just going to explode on him and he wouldn't get to say what he wanted to say - what he wanted to ask.

'Why' was the main question. Maybe he'd just start with that, or if his Dad needed him to be more specific, he'd ask him why he decided to completely drop him like he did, why he had decided to withdraw completely from his life.

Why he was fucking left behind to deal his mother all alone.

He didn't get to much time to sit and stew in his anxiety though. Just as he was pulling out his phone to send a quick text to his friends that he had arrived safely, a loud, cheerful voice was calling his name.

Half bent over his phone, Roxas froze. He looked up through the meandering crowd of people at the waiting area to see his twin brother come racing down the walkway toward him, dressed like someone who lived in a land of perpetual vacation with a look on his face like it was Christmas morning. Roxas' face twisted as he tried to resist smiling - he didn't know why he did that. He forced himself to relax and stood slowly, offering a hand in greeting before he realized that Sora wasn't slowing down. Instead, he was running toward him faster. He dropped his hand, panicking mildly, but before he could figure out what to do he was tackled to the ground.

So maybe the risk of injuries wasn't really the reason why he wasn't going to be a struggle superstar. 

It was probably his slow reaction time.

When Sora finally released him, his brother dragged him to his feet to hook their arms together and start dragging him down the walkway. 

His brother was full of questions -

How was the long journey here?

Did he meet any interesting people?

What do you mean you didn't talk to anyone?!

It was a none stop stream of conversation that Roxas just wasn't used to. He and his friends talked, sure, but they enjoyed just sitting in silence, enjoying the quiet company just as much. 

He didn't think he minded it though. He responded as best as he could, though it was hard to get in a word edgewise with his brother, the pair struggling hard to figure out how to properly converse with the other but hellbent on trying. 

Soon, the conversation turned away from Roxas and onto the scenery, and for that Roxas was grateful. He listened to his brother point out every single thing they saw, seemingly knowing the names of all the locals and an interesting fact about them, each street and what it led to or something that happened on it that was important. He was dragged over down narrow, obscure walkways to get a look at views that things like posters and pictures could never capture the true beauty of. Every cove and valley of tropical flowers was stunning. Roxas would have loved to spend all evening at just one of them, taking in the sights, but Sora was determined to take him to every place worth noting on the way home.

When they did eventually reach his Dad's house, Roxas' mood soured. Considerably.

It was fucking huge. You could fit at least four of his Mom's apartments in it. It was over-looking the entire town on one side and what was probably the best-looking beach ever on the other. Apparently, his Dad married well, because he was as fuck wasn't making that money when he was with his mom. He chewed on his tongue as he followed his brother to the front door.

“So just put your stuff where ever -" Sora said quickly as he ushered Roxas in. "I have to go grab something real quick for tonight, so I’m just going to run down to the store real quick! Make yourself at home!” And then he was out the door, leaving Roxas in a strange mansion on a strange island.

Roxas dropped his bag by the front door and looked around, holding his breath and letting it out in a slow hiss when he realized he seemed to be alone downstairs.

The house was massive, but still managed to be comfortable and tasteful. He wandered from one room into the next, taking in his brother's life. 

The wall between the kitchen and the living room was covered in strategically placed photos of Sora throughout the years, some with their Father, others with their stepmother, a few with all three of them together doing fun things or just looking like happy people. The refrigerator was full of tupperware with cute little notes from their stepmom reminding Sora how to heat it up, as well as nonsensical stuff that must have been a private joke between the two of them.

There was a cookbook on the kitchen table that looked heavily used, and when he flipped through it, he saw it was all handwritten in what he was sure from years of lengthy letters was his brother's handwriting as well as someone elses, who was likely their stepmother, the writing the same as the one in the fridge. Apparently they liked cooking together. He snapped the book closed with an irritated flick of his wrist and went upstairs, his stomach twisting tighter with each step.

He peeked into three rooms that he was nearly sure were all guest rooms before he crossed the master suite to see it was as neat as the rest, everything tidy and clean looking. He slowly went to the last room of the house, taking a deep breath before he opened it, deflating when he saw it was what was clearly his brother's room, just as messy as his was before Olette bullied him into cleaning it.

He turned back to look down the empty hallway.

His Father wasn't here.

He stormed down the hallway again to read the notes in the fridge more clearly and saw they were all had suggested dates on them, reading each before figuring out the latest one was for the night after Roxas was planning on leaving. He pulled away from the fridge to close it softly. He went and grabbed his bag and carried it to the living room to sit there, stewing on his anger while he waited for his brother to come back.

When Sora came through the door he came in with an arm full of what looked like party decorations.

"So Dad's not here?" Roxas asked from the couch as Sora carried the bag over to him. 

His brother looked nervous then, placing the bags down on the floor. "Oh, yeah." Sora said an awkward sort of way, squirming under Roxas' intense stare. "He, uh, got called away to work at the last second."

"Does his new wife usually go with him on these trips?"

"Yeah -" Sora said, perking up a bit. "Mom always goes with him, but they aren't gone for long. Something about me not being trustworthy?" Sora said with a light laugh, scratching the back of his head and oblivious to the way Roxas' eyes narrowed at 'Mom'. "It's just one of those things, I guess..."

Roxas' face tightened. He wanted to ask what was so important that their Dad chose that over seeing him for the first time in twelve years, but Sora turned the conversation to all the plans he had for them to do and the subject was dropped.

Which really did nothing for Roxas' attitude, but he was willing to let it go to focus more on his brother, since he seemed to care enough to hang around and be here with Roxas.

Unlike his Father.

He didn't know why he was so surprised.

Fucking coward.

 


End file.
